Wayne A. Grove, Ph.D.

Professor of Economics

PHONE:

(315) 445-4235

EMAIL

Francis J. Fallon, S.J., Endowed Professorship, 2017-2020

“Never give up your dreams” is the inspirational message uttered by Oscar winners, Olympic medalists, award-winning authors, and others in the arts, culture, entertainment, and sports markets. Those domains constitute winner-take-all markets that offer tiny probabilities of truly life-changing outcomes. The presence of those and other superstars, who enjoy fame and fortune, appears to encourage modestly-talented workers to pursue long-shot careers rather than more realistic occupational paths. Professor Grove’s current research project investigates the puzzle of why so many people gamble with their careers and make large financial investments in exceedingly risky, winner-take-all occupations. Le Moyne awarded Professor Grove the Fallon Endowed Professorship from 2017-2020 to support this research agenda. And he received Le Moyne’s Scholar of the Year Award in 2008.

Some of the topics of his research include the gender pay gap, the economic returns to higher education, determinants of labor market outcomes, retrospective voting, determinants of college student learning of economics, and economic history topics of technological change and labor markets.

At Le Moyne, Professor Grove teaches introductory microeconomics and macroeconomics, the economics of public policy, American economic history, and sports economics. Professor Grove has published widely in many areas of applied microeconomics in, for example, the American Economic Review, the Journal of Human Resources, Economic Inquiry, the Journal of Economic History and the Journal of Economic Education. In 2017, he published "Self Confidence and Post-Baccalaureate Academic and Labor Market Outcomes" in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.

Professor Grove received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Illinois, a master’s degree from American University’s School of International Service, and a bachelor’s degree from Illinois Wesleyan University. He studied abroad in Brazil during high school, in Spain during college, and did field work in Mexico in graduate school. After college, he worked in Senator Pete Dominici’s Washington, D.C. office. For fun, Professor Grove enjoys cycling around our lovely Finger Lakes region, and with his family playing tennis, cross country skiing, and gardening.